


Sleep/Wake

by hotot



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Amputation, Destroy Ending, Disability, Drabble, F/M, Fluff, Healing, Recovery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 12:57:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6154414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotot/pseuds/hotot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He falls asleep. She wakes up. Everyone has a lot of feelings.</p><p>  <i>"But where she is missing pieces he is there, filling her. So… un-alien to her."</i></p><p>T for swearing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep/Wake

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [It was here in her hospital room...](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/179017) by commander-hot-pants. 



> Prompt fill for a picture/render with a drabble from the talented @commander-hot-pants on tumblr. Thanks for the inspiration, CHP! this drabble has been modified from its original tumblr version, and modified to fit AO3. Go check out @commander-hot-pants' work on their (sorta NSFW) [blog!](http://commander-hot-pants.tumblr.com/post/140332886320/it-was-here-in-her-hospital-room-after-saving)

He hasn’t slept in weeks, can’t sleep. Whatever rest he gets has been fleeting and poisoned. She’s sleeping enough for the both of them, sleeping like the dead except for the beep beep beep of the monitors she’s wired to. Might be wired to forever. Which was a long, long time. At least they'd have it now. Time. 

She did that. For them.

He watches her sleep. Every day, for weeks. Then without warning or preamble, she just... wakes up. It was so like her, so sudden and unexpected. So welcome. The first thing she’d said was his name. “Garrus.” The second thing she’d said was “fuck.” Then she’d said his name again. Then the doctors came and put her to sleep with drugs again, but she would wake. And wake again.

She’d come out alive. Spirits, alive. Broken, needing “reconstruction," _again_ , but alive. Three limbs only, her right leg missing. Pelvis fractured. Face damaged. It is going to scar. But… five intact fingers on each intact hand. Five intact toes on her remaining foot. Spirits, he loves her toes.

She is asleep at the moment and he wants to join her, can’t resist the pull anymore. He takes her hand so carefully-- it's splinted and full of IVs, and closes his eyes. He remembers her face the first time she tries to approximate a smile when she says his name. It’s hard to smile when your face is half missing. He knows this from experience.

He puts his head down on the bed beside her lap, in the space where her leg should be. Human beds, not made for turians, damn it, but at this point he could have slept on a rock. On top of the Mako. While a thresher maw spits acid at him. Fine. He'd _enjoy_ it. He can sleep now because she can wake up, say his name. Swear. The steady beep beep of the monitors are… soothing. His lifeline to her. His lullaby.

He dreams of sunlight, and her smile, and there is no hospital equipment between them.

~~~

She wakes up to Garrus asleep in her lap, his head where her right leg would have been, had it not been blown off at the thigh. She cringes at the new and alien sensation that her limb is still there, but when she looks, tries to move her foot, it's gone. But where she is missing pieces he is there, filling her. So… un-alien to her.

His head is planted crest down on the bed, his breathing deep and even and his mandibles fluttering as they do when he was dreaming.

Oh, Garrus. Fuck. _Garrus._ Every time she wakes up, she has the same reaction. He's _here._ He is her lifeline, her wake-up call.

Her five fingered hand is caged gently by his gloved, three fingered one. The silly, loving man is ever careful of those talons, afraid of hurting her. It’s so sweet, _delusional_ really, the way he thinks he can hurt her just by being. Ignoring the needles and the splints in her own hand, she gently slips free and works his glove off. Once free, she places her hand on top of his to feel hide and plate and talon on her skin. 

He’s finally… finally sleeping. She knows he hasn’t been, even though he lies when she asks, every time she wakes. He's always there. Every time. _Sure, Shepard. I sleep. You don't see me sleeping because you're always... you know... sleeping._ He’s never been a good liar. She approximates a smile, her face complaining from the effort. Half gone faces don’t like smiling, and yet he had managed it just hours after taking a rocket to the face, all those years ago. It’s the least she can do.

She smiles. Practice, for when he wakes up.


End file.
